This Week in My (Our) Urban Garden: June 5

I am still really missing the expansive community garden plot I left behind at Mesa Student housing in San Diego. But Los Angeles as afforded some new gardening adventures. I happened upon a beautifully designed, but unplanted garden at my son’s elementary school (Nora Sterry Elem), and we’ve been working on planting it. It’s in an awesome place by the lunch arbor and cafeteria, with lots of foot traffic with kids and parents in the afterschool hours when I have a chance to work on it. Kids stop by and check in, help plant, and take h0me big bunches of rainbow chard. (I wonder if those ever get eaten??)

I made a quiche with the chard and brought it to the Kindergarten graduation party. Nobody tried it until I put a sign on it explaining that the vegetables had come from the school garden. It got ‘eaten’– though I’m not sure anyone liked it much! LOL (I like it.. it’s my favorite swiss chard recipe.)

This morning, though, I saw some of the mothers from the school with huge bunches of cilantro gone to seed, and bags of squash blossoms. There is network of parents that trade goods (crochet scarves in winter, apparently veggies in summer) in front of the school each morning. I should have asked them what they do with the cilantro gone to seed. Perhaps there is some delicious recipe involved.

I’m sad because we’ll be leaving this school behind in August for a different neighborhood elementary school. If there’s any way I can, I’m wondering if I can still volunteer at the garden for Nora Sterry–I love the kids and the community there. For now, I’m just hoping to be able to sneak in over the summer and help what I’ve planted grow.